WILMINGTON - United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal
court yesterday Senior United States District Judge James C. Fox
sentenced JOHNNY DRAUGHN, 21, of Battleboro, North Carolina, to 154
months’ imprisonment followed by five years supervised release.
The Court also imposed restitution in the amount of $9,708.78.

DRAUGHN pled guilty on January 19, 2010 to count one, conspiring to commit robberies
of a business in interstate commerce, and to count eleven, aiding and abetting the possession of a
firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, of the original Indictment. The investigation returned
information that during a week in September, 2008, DRAUGHN, along with co-defendants Dexter
Broadnax and Terrell Cooke, while brandishing firearms, robbed several convenience stores and gas
stations. These robberies included the L&L Food Store in Sharpsburg, the New Dixie Mart #13 in
Roanoke Rapids, the Village Grocery #2 in Gaston, the Blue Flame Gas station in Gaston, and the
Salem and Sons Gas Station in Rocky Mount. During the last robbery, on September 23, 2008, they
were apprehended. The robbery occurred at Roanoke Rapid’s Blue Flame Gas Station, where two
men, brandishing firearms, demanded money and fled with $4,730.41. A witness arriving as the
robbers fled the store gave police a description of the get-away vehicle, and officers were able to
locate it minutes after the robbery. DRAUGHN was in the vehicle where officers observed the
money from the robbery. A further search of the car revealed money bags from the Blue Flame
robbery in Gaston along with a Bryco 9mm semi-automatic pistol. Broadnax was found near the gas
station.

This case was part of the Project Safe Neighborhoods(PSN) initiative which encourages
federal, state, and local agencies to cooperate in a unified “team effort” against gun crime, targeting
repeat offenders who continually plague their communities.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Roanoke Rapids
Police Department; the Sharpsburg Police Department; the Gaston
Police Department and the Rocky Mount Police Department. Assistant
United States Attorney Jane Jackson represented the government.

News releases are available on the U. S. Attorney’s web page at
www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce within 48 hours of release.

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